2008 Studio - VCUarts - Virginia Commonwealth University

Tell me a little bit about your position with VCU.
My title is Associate Professor of Trumpet and Jazz Trumpet.
I teach private lessons in classical trumpet and jazz improvisation for trumpeters; a
weekly masterclass for trumpeters; and I coach a couple of chamber brass groups.
My role in the department, probably like for most faculty, goes beyond the
description of the title. I suppose I’m in a bit of a unique position in the music
department, and maybe in the School of the Arts, because of the amount of
time and energy I spend performing on the national and international scene.
This means, on the one hand, that my schedule is pretty chaotic; on the other
hand, I find that I’m connecting in a very direct way with the music world
outside of the academic setting. I do everything I can to bring the value of
these connections home to VCU through my own performances, hosting guest
artists, and sharing what I’ve learned with my students.
Tell me more about your professional career as an international
trumpet soloist.
I have been to many places – all across North America, the Middle
East, East and Central Asia, Europe, and Australia – playing venues ranging from huge
outdoor festivals to massive concert halls to tiny, intimate jazz clubs or recital halls.
As to the types of engagements – this varies greatly. I’ve been playing with a six-piece chamber group called Rhythm &
Brass for about thirteen years now. I used to play with late jazz saxophone great Joe Henderson before he became too sick
to tour. We played concert halls and festivals in the U.S. and Canada and the Blue Note clubs in Japan. From about 1994 to
1997, I was the jazz trumpet soloist with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble.
Now, I really focus on my work as a soloist in classical, jazz and crossover settings, work as part of jazz combos and my
work as composer – usually writing for myself. I’m playing as a soloist at jazz and brass festivals, and with orchestras,
concert bands, brass bands, jazz ensembles, whatever, around the world – often premiering new works written for me by
new composers. I’m really excited about this – it’s an honor to have someone write for me, and working with them puts
me right at the center of the creative process. The greatest piece written for me is by my VCU colleague and close friend,
Doug Richards – a massive concerto for trumpet and jazz orchestra, which we premiered in Australia in 2006.
What are some of the more interesting performances you’ve lined up
One of the weirdest was playing as a soloist with the Szechuan Philharmonic Orchestra in Chengdu,
China for their New Year’s Eve gala concert. It was a live national television broadcast. The “studio audience” – this was
being done at a brand new, massive TV station - was comprised entirely of impassive Communist party officials who didn’t
seem to know when to applaud. I felt like I didn’t really know what was going on, and I was on live national TV and in a haze
of lost-in-translation chaos. Everything went fine, but it remains one of the oddest experiences of my life.
Playing Doug Richards’s piece in Melbourne definitely ranks as a career highlight for me. I cannot recall ever being so
completely lost in the music, so un-selfconscious while playing a difficult, virtuoso work – and I came off the stage feeling